Long Table with multicolumn width problem

Question

I am trying to use longtable package with multirow package, as shown in the example below, but the long table width exceeded the page width, could anyone help with this?
documentclass{article}
usepackage{longtable}
usepackage{multirow}
title{A longtable example}

begin{document}

begin{center}

begin{longtable}{|p{1cm}|p{3cm}|p{12cm}|}
 caption{List Of Quality Metrics Used} label{tab:qm}

hline multicolumn{1}{|c|}{textbf{Ref.}} & multicolumn{2}{c|}{textbf{Metrics Used}}   hline 
   endfirsthead

multicolumn{3}{c}%
   {{bfseries tablename thetable{} -- continued from previous page}} 
  hline multicolumn{1}{|c|}{textbf{Ref.}} & multicolumn{2}{c|}{textbf{Metrics Used}}   hline 
  endhead

hline multicolumn{3}{|r|}{{Continued on next page}}  hline
   endfoot

hline hline
    endlastfoot

ref1 & multicolumn{2}{l|}{ LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-LOC-WORKED-ON, AVG-LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-COMMITS, 
    AVG-COMMITS, MAX-LOC-ADDED, AVG-LOC-ADDED, MAX-LOC-DELETED, AVG-LOC-DELETED, MAX-LOC-WORKED, AVG- 
    LOC-WORKED,MAX-CODECHURN, AVG-CODECHURN, MAX-CHANGESET, AVG-CHANGESET, MAX-TIME-DIFF,MIN-TIME- 
    DIFF,AVG-TIME-DIFF, SINGLE-COMMITS}  hline
    ref2 & multicolumn{2}{l|}{ WMC, DIT, NOC, CBO, RFC, LCOM, Ca, Ce, NPM, LCOM3, LOC, DAM,MOA, MFA, 
    CAM, IC, CBM, AMC, Max-CC, Avg-CC.}  hline
    multirow{2}{*}{ref3}  & Dataset PC3 & PC4: & LOC-BLANK
     BRACNH-COUNT,
     CALL-PAIRS,
     LOC-CODE-AND-COMMENTS,
     LOC-COMMENTS,
     CONDITION-COUNT,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     CYCLIMATIC-DENSITY,
     DECISION-COUNT,
     DECISION-DENSITY,
     EDGE-COUNT,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-DENSITY,
     LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     PARAMETER-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CONTENT,
     HALSREAD-DOFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-ERROR-EST,
     HALSTEAD-LENGTH,
     HALSTEAD LEVEL,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     MAINTENANCE-SEVERITY,
     MODIFIED-CONDITION-COUNT,
     MULTIPLE-CONDITION-COUNT,
     NODE-COUNT,
     NORMALIZED-CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERANDS, 
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-UNIQYE-OPERATORS,
     NUMBER-OF-LINES,
     PERCENT-COMMENTS,
     LOC-TOTAL   cline{2-3}
                & Dataset KC2 & LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     DESIGN-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERATORS-AND-OPERANDS,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     HALSTEAD-DIFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-INTEELIGENCE,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-NUM-DELIVERED-BUGS,
     HALSTEAD-PROG-TIME,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-LINE-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-AND-COMMENT-LINE-COUNT,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-OPERANDS,
     BRANCH-COUNT  hline

end{longtable}

end{center}
     end{document}

Skillmon · Accepted Answer

The following changes your table in the following ways:

use only the available linewidth
remove multirow (it's useless in this example as the contents won't stay on the same page most likely and the alignment doesn't work automatically anyway for p-type columns)
use raggedright in the cells with much content (for that the array package is loaded and the L type column defined)
use dimexpr to calculate the available width somewhat automatically (you can change the values of myfirstcol and mysecondcol to get the result you want)
use L columns also in the joined cells of the first and second row (with dimexpr to calculate the width)
I removed center around longtable, that isn't necessary anyways, as longtable centres the tables (if you don't manually specify another alignment) and center only results in unwanted vertical space here (also the table is as wide as the text block allows, so it is always centred anyway)
use caption to format the continued caption as well (if you use an empty optional argument, longtable won't add this caption to the list of tables, shown in my MWE), I also altered the text of that follow-up caption.
I used extrarowheight to space out the cells a bit more (this gives better looks combined with hline and cline rules).

documentclass{article}
usepackage{longtable}
usepackage{array}
title{A longtable example}

newlengthmyfirstcol
newlengthmysecondcol
newlengthmythirdcol
newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{raggedrightarraybackslash}p{#1}}

begin{document}
listoftables

begingroup
setlengthmyfirstcol{8mm}
setlengthmysecondcol{2cm}
setlengthmythirdcol
  {dimexprlinewidth-myfirstcol-mysecondcol-6tabcolsep-4arrayrulewidth}
setlengthextrarowheight{2pt}
 begin{longtable}{|p{myfirstcol}|L{mysecondcol}|L{mythirdcol}|}
 caption{List Of Quality Metrics Used} label{tab:qm}

hline multicolumn{1}{|c|}{textbf{Ref.}} & multicolumn{2}{c|}{textbf{Metrics Used}}   hline 
   endfirsthead

caption[]{List Of Quality Metrics Used (continued)} 
  hline multicolumn{1}{|c|}{textbf{Ref.}} & multicolumn{2}{c|}{textbf{Metrics Used}}   hline 
  endhead

hline multicolumn{3}{|r|}{{Continued on next page}}  hline
   endfoot

hline hline
    endlastfoot

ref1 &
    multicolumn{2}{L{dimexprmythirdcol+mysecondcol+2tabcolsep+arrayrulewidth}|}{ LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-LOC-WORKED-ON, AVG-LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-COMMITS, 
    AVG-COMMITS, MAX-LOC-ADDED, AVG-LOC-ADDED, MAX-LOC-DELETED, AVG-LOC-DELETED, MAX-LOC-WORKED, AVG- 
    LOC-WORKED,MAX-CODECHURN, AVG-CODECHURN, MAX-CHANGESET, AVG-CHANGESET, MAX-TIME-DIFF,MIN-TIME- 
    DIFF,AVG-TIME-DIFF, SINGLE-COMMITS}  hline
    ref2 &
    multicolumn{2}{L{dimexprmythirdcol+mysecondcol+2tabcolsep+arrayrulewidth}|}{ WMC, DIT, NOC, CBO, RFC, LCOM, Ca, Ce, NPM, LCOM3, LOC, DAM,MOA, MFA, 
    CAM, IC, CBM, AMC, Max-CC, Avg-CC.}  hline
    ref3  & Dataset PC3 & PC4: & LOC-BLANK
     BRACNH-COUNT,
     CALL-PAIRS,
     LOC-CODE-AND-COMMENTS,
     LOC-COMMENTS,
     CONDITION-COUNT,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     CYCLIMATIC-DENSITY,
     DECISION-COUNT,
     DECISION-DENSITY,
     EDGE-COUNT,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-DENSITY,
     LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     PARAMETER-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CONTENT,
     HALSREAD-DOFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-ERROR-EST,
     HALSTEAD-LENGTH,
     HALSTEAD LEVEL,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     MAINTENANCE-SEVERITY,
     MODIFIED-CONDITION-COUNT,
     MULTIPLE-CONDITION-COUNT,
     NODE-COUNT,
     NORMALIZED-CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERANDS, 
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-UNIQYE-OPERATORS,
     NUMBER-OF-LINES,
     PERCENT-COMMENTS,
     LOC-TOTAL   cline{2-3}
                & Dataset KC2 & LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     DESIGN-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERATORS-AND-OPERANDS,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     HALSTEAD-DIFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-INTEELIGENCE,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-NUM-DELIVERED-BUGS,
     HALSTEAD-PROG-TIME,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-LINE-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-AND-COMMENT-LINE-COUNT,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-OPERANDS,
     BRANCH-COUNT  hline                            
end{longtable}
endgroup

end{document}

leandriis · Answer

I suggest one of the two following redesigns. With this approach, your table fits onto a single page:
documentclass{article}
usepackage{xltabular}
usepackage[column=0]{cellspace}
setlength{cellspacetoplimit}{3pt}
setlength{cellspacebottomlimit}{cellspacetoplimit}
addparagraphcolumntypes{X}

usepackage{booktabs}
usepackage{enumitem}
newlist{tabdescr}{description}{1}
setlist[tabdescr]{before=begin{minipage}[t]{hsize}raggedright,
                   after=end{minipage}}

begin{document}
begin{table}
caption{List Of Quality Metrics Used} label{tab:qm}
 begin{tabularx}{textwidth}{|0l|>{raggedrightarraybackslash}0{X}|}

hline multicolumn{1}{|0c|}{textbf{Ref.}} & multicolumn{1}{0c|}{textbf{Metrics Used}}   hline

ref1 &
    LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-LOC-WORKED-ON, AVG-LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-COMMITS, 
    AVG-COMMITS, MAX-LOC-ADDED, AVG-LOC-ADDED, MAX-LOC-DELETED, AVG-LOC-DELETED, MAX-LOC-WORKED, AVG- 
    LOC-WORKED,MAX-CODECHURN, AVG-CODECHURN, MAX-CHANGESET, AVG-CHANGESET, MAX-TIME-DIFF,MIN-TIME- 
    DIFF,AVG-TIME-DIFF, SINGLE-COMMITS  hline
    ref2 &
     WMC, DIT, NOC, CBO, RFC, LCOM, Ca, Ce, NPM, LCOM3, LOC, DAM,MOA, MFA, 
    CAM, IC, CBM, AMC, Max-CC, Avg-CC hline
    ref3  & textit{Dataset PC3 & PC4:}  LOC-BLANK
     BRACNH-COUNT,
     CALL-PAIRS,
     LOC-CODE-AND-COMMENTS,
     LOC-COMMENTS,
     CONDITION-COUNT,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     CYCLIMATIC-DENSITY,
     DECISION-COUNT,
     DECISION-DENSITY,
     EDGE-COUNT,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-DENSITY,
     LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     PARAMETER-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CONTENT,
     HALSREAD-DOFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-ERROR-EST,
     HALSTEAD-LENGTH,
     HALSTEAD LEVEL,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     MAINTENANCE-SEVERITY,
     MODIFIED-CONDITION-COUNT,
     MULTIPLE-CONDITION-COUNT,
     NODE-COUNT,
     NORMALIZED-CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERANDS, 
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-UNIQYE-OPERATORS,
     NUMBER-OF-LINES,
     PERCENT-COMMENTS,
     LOC-TOTAL   cline{2-2}
                & textit{Dataset KC2} LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     DESIGN-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERATORS-AND-OPERANDS,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     HALSTEAD-DIFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-INTEELIGENCE,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-NUM-DELIVERED-BUGS,
     HALSTEAD-PROG-TIME,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-LINE-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-AND-COMMENT-LINE-COUNT,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-OPERANDS,
     BRANCH-COUNT  hline                            
end{tabularx}
end{table}

begin{table}
caption{List Of Quality Metrics Used} label{tab:qm}
 begin{tabularx}{textwidth}{l>{raggedrightarraybackslash}X}

toprule
  Ref. & Metrics Used  
  midrule

ref1 &
    LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-LOC-WORKED-ON, AVG-LOC-WORKED-ON, MAX-COMMITS, 
    AVG-COMMITS, MAX-LOC-ADDED, AVG-LOC-ADDED, MAX-LOC-DELETED, AVG-LOC-DELETED, MAX-LOC-WORKED, AVG- 
    LOC-WORKED,MAX-CODECHURN, AVG-CODECHURN, MAX-CHANGESET, AVG-CHANGESET, MAX-TIME-DIFF,MIN-TIME- 
    DIFF,AVG-TIME-DIFF, SINGLE-COMMITS  
    midrule
    ref2 &
     WMC, DIT, NOC, CBO, RFC, LCOM, Ca, Ce, NPM, LCOM3, LOC, DAM,MOA, MFA, 
    CAM, IC, CBM, AMC, Max-CC, Avg-CC
    midrule
    ref3  & begin{tabdescr}item{Dataset PC3 & PC4:}  LOC-BLANK
     BRACNH-COUNT,
     CALL-PAIRS,
     LOC-CODE-AND-COMMENTS,
     LOC-COMMENTS,
     CONDITION-COUNT,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     CYCLIMATIC-DENSITY,
     DECISION-COUNT,
     DECISION-DENSITY,
     EDGE-COUNT,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-DENSITY,
     LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     PARAMETER-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CONTENT,
     HALSREAD-DOFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-ERROR-EST,
     HALSTEAD-LENGTH,
     HALSTEAD LEVEL,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     MAINTENANCE-SEVERITY,
     MODIFIED-CONDITION-COUNT,
     MULTIPLE-CONDITION-COUNT,
     NODE-COUNT,
     NORMALIZED-CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERANDS, 
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-UNIQYE-OPERATORS,
     NUMBER-OF-LINES,
     PERCENT-COMMENTS,
     LOC-TOTAL  end{tabdescr}  cmidrule{2-2}
                & begin{tabdescr}item{Dataset KC2} LOC-EXECUTABLE,
     CYCLOMATIC-COMPLEXITY,
     ESSENTIAL-COMPLEXITY,
     DESIGN-COMPLEXITY,
     NUM-OPERATORS-AND-OPERANDS,
     HALSTEAD-VOLUME,
     HALSTEAD-DIFFICULTY,
     HALSTEAD-INTEELIGENCE,
     HALSTEAD-EFFORT,
     HALSTEAD-NUM-DELIVERED-BUGS,
     HALSTEAD-PROG-TIME,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-LINE-COUNT,
     HALSTEAD-CODE-AND-COMMENT-LINE-COUNT,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERATORS,
     NUM-UNIQUE-OPERANDS,
     NUM-OPERATORS,
     NUM-OPERANDS,
     BRANCH-COUNT end{tabdescr}  
    bottomrule                            
end{tabularx}
end{table}

end{document}

Long Table with multicolumn width problem

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